Going Up: Potential Place
Stable housing is essential to helping people stay employed, further their education, and build community. Having supported Calgarians with chronic mental health issues for 27 years, Potential Place knows this better than most, but finding appropriate and affordable homes for the community they serve can be a difficult task. Recognizing the immense value in connecting their clients with a place to call home, Potential Place plans to build a new affordable housing facility where residents can access programming without ever leaving the building. They’ve got the plans, the purpose, and 85% of the funding - they just need a bit more support to get construction started.
Potential Place is an accredited Clubhouse – one of 320 worldwide. Following the Clubhouse model, they connect people living with mental illness with resources and opportunities to achieve their full potential. Through meaningful volunteer and work placements, participants find purpose, develop relationships that celebrate their strengths, and build self-esteem through the contributions they are making to their community. Potential Place has served 2,379 Calgarians since its inception in 1995 and currently has 340 active members who access programming on a regular basis.
The Potential Place model has produced amazing results, both for the Calgarians who access the programs and for society as a whole. Potential Place members see better employment rates, fewer incarcerations, and improved overall health and well-being as compared to their non-member counterparts. In addition, a study conducted between 2016 and 2018 found that participation in Clubhouse programming reduces hospitalization rates by 50%, translating to a savings of over $3 million per year for the Government of Alberta in hospitalization costs.
But it is unlikely that members will be able to see the benefits of Potential Place’s programming if they do not first have stable, supportive housing. “We cannot effectively help folks until they’re properly housed,” says Frank Kelton, CEO of Potential Place. “It doesn’t make sense to talk about peoples’ goals around education, employment, income support and advocacy for mental health when they don’t have a safe place to live.” For this reason, housing is an integral part of what Potential Place wants to offer their clients.
Potential Place currently has two small apartment buildings where members can access their life-changing programming on site, but with housing for only 25, these buildings do not come close to meeting the needs of their member base. To help bridge this gap, the organization has designed a new, larger housing facility that is supported financially by the National Housing Strategy Co-Investment fund, the City of Calgary, and others. “This purpose-built facility is not just affordable housing,” says Kelton. “It is addiction and mental health affordable housing and chronic mental health affordable housing that will serve this vulnerable population in the most cost-effective manner possible with our wrap-around mental health services on site. There are wins for everyone”.
Kelton and his team have been successful in raising nearly 85% of the funds they need to move forward, but they are struggling to fund the final 15%. They continue to explore creative ways to bring their project to fruition so that more Calgarians can have dignified, appropriate, and affordable homes accompanied by the wraparound services that allow them to become meaningful contributors to their community.
For more information about Potential Place, and to support this and other important Potential Place initiatives, please visit potentialplace.org.